KFC, as part of its goal to get people to thinking of its chicken for more than family meals, spent two years developing the KFC Go Cup, a wide-mouth plastic container that holds bite-size chicken and potato wedges and fits in car cup holders. The Yum Brands Inc. restaurant says the cup checks off what consumers most want from their snacks: protein, portability, a low price and no utensils needed.

KFC's stout plastic cup holds less food than other KFC meals and costs $2.49—about half the price of the cheapest meals currently on KFC menus.

KFC has been known for "mealness," says Jason Marker, KFC chief marketing officer. "So we needed a package that created affordability and snackability," for easy eating in a space-crunched car, he says. The company hopes the cups will lead people to KFC even when they don't feel like a 12-piece bucket of chicken.

About half of KFC sales come through the drive-through, says Mr. Marker.

Boneless chicken that is easy to eat on the go has been a fast-food restaurant darling in recent years. McDonald's Corp. introduced Chicken McBites—bite-size fried chicken in a narrow cardboard container that fits in a car's cup holder—in the U.S. as limited-time specials last year. The containers included a lid that could hold dipping sauce. Popeyes, based in Atlanta, has introduced about half a dozen limited-time specials that are different versions of its "ip'ns" strategy.

Americans order about 21% of all restaurant meals from their cars and 26% of breakfast meals, a slight increase from recent years, says Harry Balzer, vice president at NPD Group, a consumer research firm that surveys eating behavior.

While Americans are eating more snack food, it is a misconception that more people are forgoing meals in favor of snacks, says Mr. Balzer. People are still eating at typical meal times, but "are eating more snack foods as meals," usually heartier fare: yogurt, cheese and crackers, or a smaller portion of fried chicken, he says.

KFC spent about two years honing the Go Cup package design, say company executives. Most importantly, the cup needed to fit into the maximum number of cup holders. "Much to my chagrin there are no standards in the car industry on cup holder size and height," says Susan Miles, manager of packaging engineering for KFC. It made the cup base the size of a soda can, which the company believes will fit in about 83% of U.S. cars' cup holders.

Capitalizing on what KFC calls its "bucket equity," the cup echoes the shape of its family-size meal buckets. The cups are served with a choice of five chicken varieties. With the potato wedges, each cup contains about 500 to 600 calories.

Popeyes introduced Dip'n Chick'n as a limited-time special for the third time this week. The slightly curved, bite-sized fried chicken pieces are designed to easily scoop up a lot of sauce, says Dick Lynch, chief global brand officer for the company. About three years ago, the company recognized "the need to address portability," launching a series of boneless fried chicken products cut into unique shapes starting with Wicked Chicken, then Dip'n Chick'n, and finally Rip'n Chick'n, a fried chicken breast sliced into pieces that can be torn off and eaten bite-size.

McDonald's switched gears for its newest limited-time chicken special, introducing bone-in chicken wings in September. Called Mighty Wings, the special is linked to the kickoff of football season.

Does the WSJ even edit these press releases from manufacturers? Great, now we have a more efficient way to distract drivers, chicken snacks built to fit in your cup holder. Right hand on the chicken snacks, left hand on your 24 ounce big Slurpy and steer with your knee.

They say texting and driving is an issue, and it kills, what, thousands each year? Government all over itself to ban it. But, let's get as many fast food outlets as possible to offer easy to eat and drive snacks and not even mention the risks. I am going to try this as I myself like texting and driving and this fits right in my wheelhouse.

Just heard that the Democrats are adding an amendment to the Obamacare bill. It is going to require all car manufacturers to make their cup holders uniform size so the KFC cup can fit in it. Reasoning is It wouldn't be fair if Joe Smoe could fit the cup in his car and Mary Jane could not.

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